


Always a First Time

by magebird



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Drug Use, Gen, Guns, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-01
Updated: 2013-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-23 04:20:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/618006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magebird/pseuds/magebird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a first time for everything, and for extractors, that includes death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always a First Time

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:** [How everyone got through their first deaths in the dream to wake up. Like maybe Mal had to hold Cobb's hand, and Yusuf did it by accident then realised it wasn't so bad, and when Cobb was training a very young Arthur he was worried and saddened by how calmly Arthur just said "ok then, so shoot me" and Eames... Eames was obsessed with making his first time 'special' and tried to construct going out on a heart attack in a mind-blowing drug filled orgy or something.](http://community.livejournal.com/inception_kink/756.html?thread=2244340#t2244340)
> 
>  **Author's Note:** Rewatching the movie, I see that Ariadne's first death comes when she's beaned in the head by a chunk of concrete the first time she's sharing a dream with Cobb (the cafe scene.) Oh well! There's also a scene later where you can see her share-dreaming with Yusuf alone, so maybe take this fic to be the first intentional death, one inflicted by someone else, or something. XD

* * *

**-Cobb-**

* * *

“This is only a dream,” she told him firmly, and she was glad to note there wasn’t a quaver to her voice, or the hand holding the gun against the back of his neck, “There will be an instant of pain, like getting a shot, and it’ll all be over. You’ll be awake, and I’ll be there with you.”

Dom was shaking in her arms. She knew he couldn’t help it. Even with her fingers twined with his and her body pressed close in the tiny coat closet, the visceral terror of impending death, however transient, was impossible to reassure away. His eyes were squeezed shut, and she longed to smooth his hair back, soothe the wrinkles from his forehead. She’d already been through this, had her life snuffed out in the dream, though she’d had no one to hold her then. That was before he’d begun this lunacy, before he’d fallen for her and been willing to try anything she asked.

There was another loud bang as the projections outside flung themselves against the locked door.

“No more time,” Mal told him, “Three… two… one… I love you.”

It took too long for the world to collapse around her, and though it was only seconds in the real world she regretted every instant between the hot splash of his blood against her face and surging back to reality to rip the needle from her wrist and run to where he was crouched on the floor, clinging to the concrete like it was the only real thing in the world.

* * *

**-Arthur-**

* * *

“So shoot me, Mr. Cobb.”

Dom hadn’t known the young man long enough to be on a first-name basis, but he was already staring at him down the barrel of a gun. After the trauma of how their last point-man reacted to a surprise death in-dream, Mal and Dom had agreed that they would introduce the next man to death in more controlled circumstances. They’d had to get out of the way of the projections who, though unreal, would react to seeing one man shoot another in the middle of the street.

So, the top of an office building, and Arthur Darling had positioned himself in the most dramatic place possible, standing a little too close to the edge.

It was sad to see how jaded the kid was, already. Maybe he looked younger than he was, but Dom hadn’t expected to see such… resignation in his face. As if he’d already grown used to staring down the barrel of a gun at someone he was told to trust.

Dom squeezed the trigger. At point blank range it was impossible to miss, and he didn’t flinch as he watched the spray of blood fill the air behind Arthur’s head and the universe started to cave in.

Arthur didn’t seem fazed, when he awoke, just pulled the needle out of his arm and fished around in his pocket for his totem. Mal later said he’d woken with a start that Dom hadn’t seen, and rubbed at his eyes as though he’d been crying, but there was never anything to him but steel as far as Dom could see.

* * *

**-Eames-**

* * *

When Eames was told he would have to die at least once and that Arthur had volunteered, more than willingly, to take him out, he laughed and replied, “Thanks, but I’ll take care of things myself, Darling.”

Arthur found him sprawled on a bed in a hotel that looked cheap, despite Eames’ attempts to class it up with a jacuzzi tub in one corner. He was making a weird noise, somewhere between a whine and a laugh, and when Arthur took a step closer (over the body of one of the projection-girls Eames had attempted to take down with him,) he realized it was, “Not enough pills.”

There was a moment when Arthur debated just leaving him there to die slowly and painfully from whatever substances he’d tried to send himself out with, but the point was to teach new members of a team not to panic over death in the dream, so he fished out his revolver and checked to make sure there was a bullet in the chamber before aiming it between Eames’ eyes.

“Go towards the white light,” he said, then sent a bullet through Eames’ skull with a bang that was, perhaps, a little too satisfying.

Arthur roused to find Eames already describing whatever debauchery had lead to his incapacitation in gleeful tones, and though he rolled his eyes and made a bit of a show stomping off to roll his totem, he stayed nearby enough to listen.

* * *

**-Yusuf-**

* * *

So the chemist was, apparently, worth his salt. Eames was pleased to find that the cocktail of drugs that Yusuf had dosed them both with was resulting in a remarkably vivid dreamscape, without the time distortions and weird side effects that he’d seen with some of the lesser chemists' work. And, word had it that Yusuf was remarkably new to this, perhaps even new enough not to know yet what his talents were worth.

Of course, all the skill in the world when it came to mixing up drugs didn’t help in the least when you walk out in front of a moving bus without noticing because you’re too excited talking about how deeply sedated you can keep a man.

Eames fished in his pocket for a knife as he walked towards Yusuf’s twitching body. A neck twisted like that meant the spine was almost certainly severed, so probably there wasn’t much pain getting through the shock, but there was a surprised expression on Yusuf’s face and whatever he was feeling it was pretty useless to stick around and wait. The angle to stick the knife was one Eames knew, well, excuse the pun, by heart, and he jabbed it in and twisted a little, watching Yusuf’s eyes widen, and then close.

The world started to break away in chunks, and Eames made a mental note to call Cobb when he got the chance.

Back in the two-bed hotel room where they’d met, Eames found Yusuf sitting up and examining his chest in the mirror.

“That wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I expected,” he commented.

Eames raised an eyebrow, “It was your first time?” Yusuf nodded. “Well, hell, you should have told me beforehand. I would have bough flowers.”

* * *

**-Ariadne-**

* * *

Ariadne decided on lethal injection, and Yusuf was all too happy to oblige. It would be a lot less dramatic than most of the team member’s first deaths, certainly, and less painful, even if the pain of any reasonable death while in-dream was momentary.

The place she built was a sterile white doctor’s examination room, with posters of forest scenery on the walls. Yusuf didn’t comment on the décor, but tried to be reassuring since he could read the apprehension on her face.

“This will be as simple as falling asleep, and then you’ll be back in reality. You can try something more drastic later—You probably should, to get over the shock, really.” He tapped the syringe automatically, sending any stray bubbles to the surface, and turned towards her.

“So I’ll be falling asleep to wake up?”

“In essence, yes.”

She rolled up her sleeve, offered her arm, but looked away as he stuck in the needle in a clean, practiced motion.

It took awhile for the injection to take affect, and she drifted off after nearly half an hour of increasingly incoherent chitchat. It took another ten minutes before her breathing stopped the walls shattered in a flash of white light, and Yusuf found himself dropped back into his waking body.

Ariadne was still lying down, staring at the ceiling and worrying her lip, and without turning her head to look at him she asked, “Remind me again why I also have to get shot?”


End file.
